Is it right to execute Iraq's Tariq Aziz?

Russia and the Vatican lead calls for clemency for Saddam Hussein's former top aide

Tariq Aziz, pictured here in an Iraqi courtroom in 2004, was the lone Christian in Saddam Hussein's Sunni Muslim-dominated regime.
(Image credit: Getty)

Tariq Aziz, the urbane PR man of Saddam Hussein's regime, has been sentenced to death by an Iraqi court for participating in the persecution of Shiites. But Russia and the Vatican are among many voices calling for clemency. Defenders point out that Aziz is in failing health and never took part in his government's worst abuses. Should Aziz be spared? (Watch Tariq Aziz's sentencing)

Executing Aziz only makes him a martyr: Tariq Aziz is a "sycophant, a fool, a criminal," say the editors of the Toronto Globe and Mail, but he still deserves mercy. Aziz is 74 years old and sick — he is no threat to anyone now. Executing people like him "does little to promote healing or reconciliation — it only "turns monsters into martyrs." The smart, and humane, course is to let them die in their cells, "denuded of power."

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